Long life
It’s been a very patriotic weekend, ablaze with Union flags. In London there was the Last Night of the Proms…
Low life
Last week in Ladakh I went panting from one Buddhist monastery to another. Culturally, racially and historically, Ladakh is Tibetan,…
Low life
Last week in Ladakh I went panting from one Buddhist monastery to another. Culturally, racially and historically, Ladakh is Tibetan,…
Va-t’en, Satan
What do you say to someone who is killing you? It is seldom possible to decide in advance. We are…
Real life
‘This is the last straw. Never again,’ I thought, as I sat in the carpark of a Little Waitrose eating…
This looks like the greatest rugby side ever
British Lions fans of anervous disposition should avoid the telly of a Saturday morning. Live before your very eyes, as…
Are grammar schools more meritocratic?
‘It is highly unlikely the Prime Minister has read the book,’ my father harrumphed, commenting on the appropriation of the…
Are grammar schools more meritocratic?
‘It is highly unlikely the Prime Minister has read the book,’ my father harrumphed, commenting on the appropriation of the…
Plato on grammar schools
Theresa May wants to use grammar schools to create a meritocratic, ‘socially mobile’ society at a cost of £50 million.…
Barometer
French intelligence Some interesting facts about the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, for the benefit of shadow foreign secretary Emily…
Diary
The borderline between fact and fiction becomes ever hazier, I find. Last February, Daisy Goodwin — the author of the…
In defence of Asquith
From ‘Mr. Asquith’, The Spectator, 16 September, 1916: King George has no other subject who is trusted so widely by his…
Letters
What immigration debate? Sir: Henrik Jonsson says (Letters, 10 September) that Swedes ought to learn from the Brits how to maintain…
Portrait of the week
Home Schools in England would have the right to select pupils by ability, under plans outlined by Theresa May, the…
A Bridge too far?
Bridget Jones’s Baby is the third outing for our heroine as played by Renée Zellweger, whose cosmetic work to face…
Let the good times roll
For a regular dancegoer in New York City, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater seasons arrive with the comforting predictability…
In the shadow of Picasso
‘My painting is an act of decolonisation,’ declared Wifredo Lam. These are the first words you read on entering the…
Sense of humour failure
Coleridge deemed the narrative structure of The Alchemist perfect. But, I wonder. A landowner quits plague-ridden London and his cunning…
Sense of humour failure
Coleridge deemed the narrative structure of The Alchemist perfect. But, I wonder. A landowner quits plague-ridden London and his cunning…
Super Norma
The Royal Opera has opened the season with a triumph, and in one of the most difficult of operas, Bellini’s…
Super Norma
The Royal Opera has opened the season with a triumph, and in one of the most difficult of operas, Bellini’s…
Cooking the books
Cooking really shouldn’t make good radio. On television, it’s already frustrating that you can’t taste what you’re seeing, but on…
Cooking the books
Cooking really shouldn’t make good radio. On television, it’s already frustrating that you can’t taste what you’re seeing, but on…
